This is a problem for Google. I complained to Google about some software bugs, but no one listened. I have a friend at Google, and finally they listened because of his bridging.

BTW, the support from Apple is relatively good, compared to the complaints here. I did get Apple support’s help. In one occasion, I got some follow-up when I complained to Steve Jobs with an e-mail address found on the Web! :-)

Do you use laptops outside in such weather? My laptop has a narrower range. iPhone is more a computer than a phone. Even a Nokia phone can only do 14 F.

That was the initial marketing fad. The official name is now the iPhone OS. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_OS

Is Slashdot full of Apple haters? The parent post gives no evidence of why iTunes is inferior, but it got a (ridiculous) "insightful" rating.

I am a happy user of iTunes, since the time I became an iPod owner. iTunes simply gives the best experience when using an iPod. It is true that I did not try iTunes before buying the iPod, but I have kept using since that time. It is a bit slow and bloated, but it is good otherwise.

I am Chinese, and my ID card has my photo on it. I think there are some potential privacy issues, since a reader can retrieve my information from it, if I take the card close to the reader. However, I do not feel it a real issue. In fact, I do not really understand why Americans hate the ID card ideas so much. :-)

Yes, this card is needed to show your identity, when you open an account in a mobile operator (prepaid accounts are currently exceptions, but it may not be the case in the future, since there are too many spam SMS messages). I have known of fake cards in the first generation, but have never known of a second-generation fake card (IC embedded).

Just my 2 cents.

You are exaggerating.

There seem to be a lot of people who oppose copyright here. I saw a reasonable post modded down to -1 as troll. I do not think everybody gets the point. Copyright as is being advocated by RIAA is of course problematic, but it was intended to be, and should still be, a balance between the right of the content creator and the freedom of consumer. The US constitution explicitly says:

Congress has the power to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.

As to your statement about "antithesis of free speech", one phrase is enough: fair use.

I do not want to argue with you the real status of things in the US (or Europe): it is bad. However, what we should advocate is to restore the original spirit and letters of the law, but not to abolish copyright completely.

I do not know whether I will be modded down, but I feel the same. One can claim that OOXML is an impossible-to-implement Microsoft-proprietary "standard", but now it looks to me that ODF is an inadequate standard. Dammit, if Microsoft needs to follow the OOo behaviour (instead of the ODF standard) to implement the ODF standard properly, are people suggesting replacing the Microsoft Office Overlord with the SUN Office Overlord?

As a Chinese, I also found that some behaviour of ODF documents in either OOo or MSO unacceptable. Things are OK in .doc or .docx files when they are opened by MSO. I would say I prefer the MSO Overlord, because it is at least more competent.

I did not check the preview results carefully enough. I could not type the > verbatim. I meant to say ">= 3GB...".

That is the reason of the performance. With this amount of memory, I bet Vista is really faster than XP. People complained about Vista, because it required much more memory than XP did. And that is where Windows 7 much improved.

The testers have no sense what real-world configurations are.

Check out Intel-powered convertible classmate PC. E.g. http://www.2gopc.com/ in the US.

MSO 2007sp2 won't read ODF 1.1 from any other existing application, and its ODF is only readable by the CleverAge plugin.

My first reaction is what the f***! I have tested an ODF document create in OpenOffice, and it worked in MSO 2007 SP2. After reading the link, I understood that it was the formula part that caused problems (Excel, but not Word). Of course, this is bad. But the original post is just exaggeration.

Apparently the big corportations are not hurt enough to change their attitudes towards patents. May more ridiculous patent suits appear, and clear everybody's eyes that patents are sucking and they are obstacles to (rather than protection of) innovation.